Soy, Corn and Pork Team Up to Help U.S. Farmers Spearhead Climate- Smart Practices

May 26, 2023

By Jack Cornell

Sustainability is a multi-faceted concept intricately woven into the daily considerations and practices of U.S. soybean farmers. From integrated pest management to optimized irrigation, farmers can choose many approaches to ensure the longevity of their cropland and the quality of their harvest.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted over $3 billion in funding for 141 projects under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. The funding will assist growers in implementing climate-smart production practices, evaluate their economic and environmental benefits, and develop markets that can properly value and process the commodities. These projects encompass 20-25 million acres of land and project lengths of up to five years.

One of the 141 projects encompasses a partnership between three major commodity boards focused on expanding sustainable farming practices. The United Soybean Board (USB), the National Pork Board, and the National Corn Growers Association have come together to create the Farmers for Soil Health initiative. Farmers for Soil Health is farmer led and farmer driven, with an advisory board of farmers representing these commodity boards. Their goal is to have 30 million acres of corn and soybean farmland using cover crops to improve their soil health and resiliency by 2030. Currently, about 6% of U.S. cropland uses cover crops. However, this goal is a small part of the long-term program vision.

The Farmers for Soil Health program encourages farmers to adopt and expand sustainable farming practices while still maintaining their freedom to operate. One such management practice, planting cover crops, offers many benefits to cropland, including improved soil health, water quality, and greenhouse gas sequestration. Farmers for Soil Health includes a cost-share incentive that reduces the financial risk for farmers who haven’t planted cover crops before. The program also provides technical assistance guided by the state commodity groups to help farmers succeed that are new to climate-smart practices. This state level guidance will ensure that the assistance comes from a trusted local source. This incentive program is practice-based, not outcome based, easing the burden on farmer’s verification procedures.

But Farmers for Soil Health is not just about cover crops. Another critical component of the program is the creation of a marketplace where buyers can connect directly with farms to source commodities that were grown under management practices that a buyer needs. These practices could include anything from cover crops to habitat restoration. Through the marketplace, a company alerts farmers that it wants to buy a commodity based off practices, and the farmers are free to accept, or decline based on the incentives offered. Farmers who already apply these sustainability management practices will have an advantage when the companies look for a farm to request commodities from.

Click here to see more...

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators